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Step 1
Strengthen any online contacts you already have. You may have a networking group, forum, career group or other professional group that you already belong to, but may not participate in very much. Visit the website, read up on past messages and get more involved in the community. You may also have contacts whom you used to have email correspondence with at one time. Pick back up on those conversations and continue to strengthen the relationship.
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Step 2
Become a part of a job networking community. These communities rally around each other for the purpose of helping each find job leads and career information. LinkedIn and Ecademy are two job-networking communities.
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Step 3
Reconnect with fellow alumni by using sites like Classmates.com. Since you already have a common bond, it can be easy to build a network by reconnecting with your fellow graduates.
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Step 4
Join a mailing list or email discussion group. This can be a group of professionals with the same career or a group that strictly exists for the sake of networking. The website Catalist has over 50,000 mailing lists and with so many to choose from, you are likely to find a few groups that match your interests.
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Step 5
Use online chat rooms or instant messaging to keep in contact with the contacts you make. Through chat and instant messaging, you can easily strike up conversations or ask one of your contacts for advice.
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Step 6
Give back to the networking community. As you reap the many rewards of online networking, be sure to help others who need to make contacts or get advice on what their next career step should be.
